


The Blood That Binds Me to You

by haruchicken



Category: Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-26
Updated: 2014-08-26
Packaged: 2018-02-14 23:09:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2206542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haruchicken/pseuds/haruchicken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Levitas dies Jeremy is called home by his father, who wishes to discuss his future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Blood That Binds Me to You

**Author's Note:**

> I really wanted to write something that showed the dynamic between Rankin and his family or at least how I see it. I just have a feeling he's sort of the odd one out being the third son.  
> I wrote this in here and there over a year so I'm pretty pleased I finally managed to finish it at all. God I'm a lazy writer. -_-""

The hallway was as extravagantly decorated as Rankin remembered it to be. Paintings of long gone relatives whose names his father had tirelessly tried to etch into his brain when he was a child. Jeremy had thought he would never forget them, be able to recite them on his death bed, but looking into the painted eyes staring back at him, unblinking, he realized he couldn’t name a single one. He hoped his father wouldn’t ask.

He walked down the hall, though refrained from venturing further into the house. It wasn’t his place to wonder about aimlessly around the Estate. It may have been his childhood home but it wasn’t his property, he owned nothing within the house, not even the dressers in the room he had once called his own. His older brothers had made certain he always knew his place in the house hierarchy; below them. 

Heading further down the hall, Jeremy caught his reflection in one of the many gold plated mirrors hanging on the walls and stopped. He met his own blue eyes and studied his jaw line, the slope of his neck. He looked like his mother more than father, less of an authority. He perhaps had a judging look about him, not one demanding in respect like his father. He couldn’t find a trace of his grandfather in his face, and he could barely remember the few times he had met his uncle. From what Jeremy could recall, he had liked their kind brown eyes. His eyes were a cold blue, distant, faraway. He didn’t like them in the least.

“Jeremy.” The voice started him out of his thoughts. Turning he hit the table in front of the mirror, knocking a delicate vase to the floor. It shattered. Jeremy cringed, knowing his father was staring at him intently, he could feel it, a pressure that made his throat tight. “As clumsy and uncultured as ever it seems.” 

“I’m sorry for the damage. I’ll pay to replace it.” It was a meek statement, lacking any of the confidence he usually used with people. Jeremy, though nearly thirty felt like a scolded child whenever his father spoke to him. His father lifted one eyebrow, questioningly.

“We both know you couldn’t pay for half the amount its worth. It truly doesn’t matter anyway; you’d just be paying me with my own money.” It was a true enough statement on his father’s part but it still felt like a slap in the face. Jeremy had always assumed his father gave him an allowance just to throw it back in his face. It also made their family look well to do. A third son of an Earl usually didn’t get anything particularly grand, and certainly never inherited anything from the Estate. Jeremy’s grandfather had inherited when his older brothers had died, leaving no heirs. The Estate had gone to his father because Aviators were ineligible to inherit and his grandfather had been unwilling to leave Celeritas to another handler.

“By your summons I assume you have heard of France’s failed invasion.” Jeremy stated, trying to steer the conversation away from the broken vase. His father straightened, clearing his throat, hands tightly lased behind his back. Jeremy knew that whatever his father was about to say he would not enjoy. As young child he had learned his father’s body language, his stiff, almost statue still from sent a chill down his spine even now. 

“Of course, being part of Parliament, I would have to be a complete imbecile not to have heard.” His Father reprimanded in his eerily level baritone voice. “Do not act like a fool when I have taught you so much better, Jeremy.”

“Certainly, Father. I will take note.” He tried not to fidget as he as he answered, trying even harder to stand straight and look competent, even as his thigh ached painfully. Even after three weeks it throbbed if he moved in just a certain way, and suspected it would for the rest of his life. 

“Strangely, your exploits were left out. I did not hear of your gallant message delivery until a letter arrived from the Arial Corps informing me of your beast’s death, and assuring me of your safety.” ‘Message delivery’, Jeremy wasn’t surprised by the lack of praise or reducing his life risking mission to something so mundane. Nor was he surprised by his father’s lack of emotion upon hearing of Levitas’s death. He had been furious when he had lost Celeritas and placed on the lowest ranking dragon possible. 

“As harrowing a journey as it was I was quite out shined by Captain Laurence on Temeraire. It is no wonder, they turned the tide.” Although he was still undeniably angry at Laurence for his manhandling, Jeremy wasn’t incapable of admitting the man had helped save England. Of course his father shifted ever so slightly, lifting an eyebrow less then amused.

“I’ve heard of the man and his strange beast. A heavy weight from China it is said.” Jeremy was a bit put back, not expecting his father to know so much about Laurence or his dragon. Heroes or not they were not overly known to most, especially so soon after the incident. Although his father knew dragon breeds he was not truly that interested by them individually. All he needed to know was its weight class to determine how much he wished to know of it or how much time it was worth. 

“Yes, Captain Laurence mentioned once that he had been told it was an Imperial of China by a draconic expert. I wasn’t aware it was a well-known fact.” His father scoffed slightly, letting out a condescending sort of chuckle, shaking his head.

“Then you have not been privy to the latest news.” His father replied, his eyes narrowing in a slight, knowing sort of way that made Jeremy unsettled. “It appears it’s a bit more important sort of a beast. A Celestial, or so it is called. The animal is reserved for their royalty alone. It has been a buzz in Parliament, for there is talk of the Chinese wanting the thing back.”

Jeremy stared at his father in wide eyed shock. If he had been a child he certainly would have been scolded for the gawking, but his father seemed more delighted then displeased in the reaction he got. It wasn’t so much Temeraire’s breed that made him so dismayed. Having known Laurence for a sort period of time Jeremy quickly discover the man was easily the luckiest man that ever existed, as though he was the main character of romanticized novel, of course his dragon was the rarest breed in existence, and knowing his father as well as he did Jeremy knew this was not why he was so devilishly pleased. 

“You are thinking he will have to give his dragon up to the Chinese.” Jeremy stated voice hollow and quiet. True he detested Laurence for his rudeness but having just lost Levitas he pitied the man if he lost Temeraire. Even if he had not been close to Levitas in the way most Aviators were there was still a bond between them when they flew. To lose your dragon, no matter how little time you’d spent together hurt in ways an average person could not comprehend. To know your dragon was still alive but across the globe would be madding. 

“If they demand it. We are already fighting a war with France; we can’t be insulting another nation just to keep an animal-human bond intact.” Jeremy met his eyes in the mirror off to the side, unable to meet his father’s more than cheery gaze. His father should have understood that bond and indeed Jeremy suspected that he did. Why he would find such delight in breaking those bonds Jeremy couldn’t fathom. Why he still strived to earn the man’s respect after all these years he could comprehend even less. 

“Father, is this all you wished to discuss with me?” Jeremy was quite done talking to his father, and his tone came across more biting then he had intended. He wasn’t surprised that when he once again looked over at him, the eerie glee he had had previously was replaced with a cold stare. 

“With your beast deceased and your injury you have no urgent business that demands your attention, so don’t hurry me along.” His voice was harsh, and cold, and full of ridicule. “I summoned you here, and you may leave when I say. Have I made myself clear?”

“Yes, sir.” Jeremy added a quick apology at the end, looking down at his boots in shame. He felt like a mouse cornered by a cat that wished to play with him until it was satisfied. The mouse never knowing if the final blow would come.

His father turned away from him, staring out at the dying garden through one of the large windows. “Perhaps I did drift off into matters that don’t concern you. I certainly don’t need your input on matters of state.” His father said with a laugh, shaking his head. 

“I asked you here to discuss why you were denied another chance at a beast.” Jeremy let out a breath knowing the criticism he was about to receive for losing out on such an opportunity. Unfortunately he passed the subject by and continued on into territory Jeremy hoped he hadn’t yet heard about. “Not only that I was informed you put in an application for early leave from the Corps. Why is this?”

“I feel that I have done my duty to the Arial Corps and my country.” There was no denying he had sacrificed much to aid his country when it had asked it of him. He wasn’t sure he had anymore to give after all he’d been through. “With my dragon gone and the chance at another rejected I only thought this was the best option.”

His father rounded on him, walking closer to him, making Jeremy fight the impulse to back up to get out of the man’s reach. “Don’t be a fool Jeremy, your nephew is but a three years old. He will need a dragon to inherit and surly you have seen what a slight this has been to our family. I will fight the entire Arial Corps to get you beast if I have to and this time you will not let it reject you as Celeritas did.”

The thought of another dragon didn’t please him. Jeremy didn’t want another dragon. As much as other Captains surly thought he despised Levitas he had felt nothing of the sort for the creature. His lack of attention had been mostly been due to his own feelings of inadequacy. Seeing Levitas made him feel like a failure. He was a reminder of his inability to please Celeritas or follow his father’s wishes. He had been born entirely to serve as Celeritas’s Captain and he had failed. 

“Father I have faith in your abilities of persuasion, but that could take years. It would be far easier to wait and have Mathew receive one in my place.” The thought of being in the Corps without a dragon was even less appealing then having to start all over again with another, even with his wary heart. He had always known the other Aviators disliked him, though at the time he had no clue as to why. Now they were even more hostile to him apparently finding Levitas’s death his fault. No one would take him as crew let alone as a lieutenant which was the only position as a former Captain he could take. He would be stuck filing papers for however long it took his father to strong arm the Corps into letting him have another chance at a dragon.

“With how poorly you’ve represented our family I can see the Corps refusing to give any Rankin a dragon once you step down from your post.” The words felt like daggers running over his skin, cutting only deep enough to cause pain. He had tried so hard to live up to his family’s expectations, yet his father always found him lacking. “You are the only leverage I have, and even as merger as your accomplishments are they are what I must use to convince others to back me when I argue you be given a new beast. You will stay at your post, Jeremy.”

His father reiterated his point by digging his index finger into his chest. Jeremy looked down at the aging hand and the blue, crushed velvet coat sleeve utterly hollow inside. “Yes, father.”

“You were always such a weak willed child. It is no surprise to me your fellow aviators don’t respect you.” His father stated, finally backing away. “We will have to hope Mathew is of better character. More like my father.”

Jeremy let out a few quiet words of agreement, knowing the more he accommodated his father the faster he’d let him leave. There was little point of arguing in any account. There was no accomplishment he could hold out to his father that he would find suitable, that would change his mind about his failure of a third son. 

“You are dismissed, Jeremy.” His father said nonchalantly, already turning to leave. With a word of departure Jeremy made his way out of his childhood home, his legs unable to carry him fast enough to the exit. 

Once outside he breathed in deep, praying the air would ease his aching head. He looked out over the sea of well cut grass, turning brown from the cold and recalled playing out on the lawn. He remembered every stern word and cold glance his father had given him. He remembered his brothers harsh teasing, all the stories they told him of people getting eaten by dragons knowing all too well he’d have to Captain Celeritas one day. His mother had been little comfort, for she too was terrified of the things, always fretting about Jeremy’s life among the creatures. 

No matter how unpleasant they had been at times they were his family and he loved them all the same. Nothing would have pleased him more then to make them proud, to be what they wanted. Jeremy wanted to be the Captain his father thought he ought to be, to uphold his family’s legacy. It was starting to dawn on Jeremy though, that perhaps, as much as he wanted those things, he’d never get them. That in the end, no matter what he did he’d always fall short of his father’s favor.

Changing the direction of his gaze his eyes fell upon the Winchester and the Captain that had brought him here. They were sitting in the small covert, talking to one another as they waited for him to return. Levitas was dead. He could no longer fly with the little dragon, and as much as he wanted to believe in his father’s authority he was almost entirely sure he’d never be given an opportunity at another. 

Slowly he stood a bit straighter, removing the creases his coat, and made his way over toward the pair. He’d do as he was told. He’d stay in the Corps. No matter how hostile the other aviators were, no matter how monotonous the work they gave him was. Even if no one ever recognized what he did, Jeremy would do as his father said, because his family name was all he had. It was all he’d ever had to begin with. 

He’d hold it like a torch in the dark and pray it didn’t go out.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sure his father would be more subtle then that but I can't really write Napoleonic Era snide comments to well. Either way I think Jeremy knows he's seen as a failure.  
> I really wish I could finish writing everything I start because I have so many idea's about him. There's just enough known about him to make up some pretty interesting head-cannons especially sense some of it contradicts itself at times.  
> I don't like the ending much but I wasn't sure how much longer I wanted to drag it out.  
> Hope you enjoyed it :)


End file.
